Independent Film Festival debuts Oct. 26-28

Columbia Center for the Arts will present the first Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival in Hood River on Oct. 26-28. Venues for the film festival include the 175-seat theater at Columbia Center for the Arts as well as Springhouse Cellar, and others to be announced.

A three-day, all access festival pass is $25 and a one-day pass is $10.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival will feature screenings of dozens of films in a number of categories including: narrative, animation, documentary and sports documentary. In addition, the festival will dedicate a portion of its programming specifically to independent films made in the Northwest in an effort to support local filmmakers.

To date the festival has received over 110 entries from all across the United States and around the world.

“I am just so impressed by the quality and scope of the films we have received thus far,” said Festival Producer Daniel McCabe.

“Choosing the films we screen as headliners will certainly be a challenge.”

The festival kicks off on Friday, Oct. 26 with an opening reception for fans and filmmakers. Over the next two days, there will be screenings and discussions with filmmakers, actors and other artists throughout downtown Hood River.

Screening schedules will follow along genre and/or submission category lines. There will also be a closing ceremony featuring the announcement of the winning films on Oct. 28 at Columbia Center for the Arts.

“Our goal is to bring top-notch independent films from across the globe to Hood River and in the process, draw visitors to Columbia Center for the Arts and other downtown businesses,” said Catherine Butler, Columbia Center for the Arts performance manager and film festival producer. “If all goes as planned, we will make the Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival an annual event,” said Ms. Butler.

A list of the films that will be shown can be found at www.columbiaarts.org. Specific screening times and locations for the film festival will be updated online soon.

Columbia Center for the Arts also presents a popular film series of second run non-mainstream award winning films throughout the year as well as many sports-related films of special interest to the active community of Hood River. In May, 2012, Columbia Center for the Arts presented the sold-out Columbia Gorge 48-Hour Film Project.

Local films include ‘baby boy church’

Local filmmaker Stacey Shaw screens her short film “Baby Boy Church” at the Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival.

When Shaw decided to make her first film last winter, it was for personal reasons. As someone who discovered in adulthood that she had a different biological father than she had been raised to believe, she wanted to go out and tell the story of someone else who had been through this experience.

Shaw found Ron Morgan, a “late discovery adoptee” living in Hillsboro and created her short documentary titled “Baby Boy Church.” In the film Mr. Morgan tells the story of discovering, at age 36, that he was adopted, as he went through his deceased mother's belongings. He shares how this has impacted his self-perception and his life.

“Baby Boy Church” has been shown at the Bend Film Festival, the Eugene International Film Festival and the Healdsburg International Short Film Festival. The film will also air nationally on PBS this year.

Stacey Shaw lives in Hood River and is the owner of PoCards Media.

“Baby Boy Church” is showing on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 3:30 p.m. at the Skylight Theater in Hood River.

The short documentary runs nine minutes.

Other local filmmakers include:

Stacey Shaw (Baby Boy Church),

Daniel Dancer (The Art of Dam Removal (condit dam footage)

Adien Woods and Saylor Sunby (Save The Bees),

Zach Zoller (The 48 Hours),

Andrea Fox (5ive),

Daniel McCabe (5 Minutes).

A complete list of films is available on the Columbia Center for the Arts website.